McLaren fears Ferrari’s recovery: MCL39’s margin over competition is minimal. McLaren hasn’t forgotten Ferrari, even though it has impressed in this start of the F1 season.

McLaren hasn’t forgotten Ferrari, even though it has impressed in this start of the Formula 1 season. In a regulatory continuity scenario, it was quite a plausible outcome, considering how last season ended with the British team’s triumph, which warned the Constructors’ Championship. Luckily for the competition, there have been a few small setbacks within the Woking team.

We are talking about the second place thrown away by Oscar Piastri and the Sprint Race in China, a mini-race in which Lando Norris got a bit confused. In short, the MCL39 had all the right elements to be perfect. Nevertheless, it took charge of both the drivers’ and constructors’ standings.

Realism and respect for the competition
Especially regarding the drivers’ championship, the team led by Andrea Stella is aware that many of the chances for final success lie in this start of the season. Last year, Max Verstappen, capitalizing on every opportunity with his RB20, managed to contain Lando Norris’s pursuit, even though his car was no longer the reference car.

Despite the flattering start of the season, at least in words, both Zak Brown and Andrea Stella fear Ferrari’s recovery. According to the former Ferrari engineer, the MCL39’s margin over the competition is minimal, around one or two tenths. The Italian manager explained that the historic British team doesn’t think they will be able to dominate the top category in 2025.

At the same time, however, they place a lot of hope in the car’s development plan. In particular, it is feared that the competition, especially the historic Ferrari team, for a number of reasons, hasn’t shown all of its potential. Therefore, resting on their laurels after just two races in a very long season is not considered.

Is there still potential to be unlocked in the MCL39?
In the last two years, the current world champion team has managed to unlock enormous potential from their technical projects. Just think of the start of the 2023 Formula 1 season, when the papaya-colored cars were desolately in the middle of the grid. From the Austrian Grand Prix, the first timid signs of growth appeared. While in the last campaign, the Woking team started the season on the right foot.

From the Imola Grand Prix onwards, there was a clear sense that cars number 4 and 81 were significantly superior to the competition. The English team’s ability to react and develop is worrying the competitors. If the MCL39 were to show the same growth potential as the MCL38, it would be a big problem for the opponents, especially Ferrari, which has championship aspirations.

Assuming that the F1 2025 car represents an extreme evolution of last season’s car, it will be necessary to understand whether there is still additional performance to be unlocked from the papaya-colored car. Otherwise, we might witness the technical plateau of the RB20, which dominated the first five races of 2024 before handing over the mantle of supremacy to the English team’s cars.

Triple header is an opportunity not to be wasted
On paper, the MCL39 car will find its ideal habitat in Japan. Already in 2025, Lando Norris finished behind Max Verstappen, although far from the Dutch world champion. McLaren’s unspoken goal is to use its current superiority to deliver a first knockout to the competition in the next three races, where the delayed teams will bring new updates but will be forced to make them work quickly.

Of course… the championship is very long, but the regulatory revolution of 2026 is just around the corner, and only those with a chance of success will develop the 2025 technical project after the summer break. The regulatory discontinuity forces all teams to reorganize their personnel allocation, between those who will follow the current championship and those who will focus on the next one. This division is certainly influenced by the teams’ championship chances.